the gringo trail

(from an internet cafe in Panajachel, Guatemala,
with apologies to Paul Simon's "Graceland")


my skin in Nicaragua
was burning like a Sandinista star
i am travelling by school bus
to Honduras, through the wreckage of the Contra War

i'm on the gringo trail, gringo trail,
the spine of the PPP
i'm on the gringo trail
drifters with trust funds and pony tails
and we are on the gringo trail

my travelling companion's from Ohio
she just changed her dollars at the border
and i have reason to believe
that she has been deceived
by the money trader

she comes back to tell me she's broke
as if i didn't know that
as if i didn't watch her flash her wallet
as if i never noticed
the way she bought up souvenirs at the tourist market

and she said, "solo travel
is like playing monopoly alone
and you're the first guy i've seen since i left León"
she looks right through the latinos

i'm on the gringo trail
spine of the PPP
i'm on the gringo trail
drifters with trust funds and pony tails
and we are on the gringo trail

our travelling companions are coyotes and pickpockets
they're looking at easy pickings
and i've reason to believe
my valuables will be relieved
on the gringo trail

there's a girl in Guatemala City
who calls herself Ovaries of Steel
and last week tossed and battered in the
surf of Monterrico i said to Simon,
whoah, maybe this is how it feels
to be a gringa on the gringo trail

and i see Third World tourism
sometimes brings out our worst
every prejudice is reinforced
every selfish thought grows

on the gringo trail, gringo trail
i'm on the gringo trail
for reasons that leave me ashamed
i can't seem to escape from the gringo trail

and i'll be obliged to repay
all that cash i threw away
in every internet cafe

and maybe i've a reason to believe
there must be better ways to see
Latin America...


______
Note: the PPP, or Plan Puebla Panama, is the neoliberal 'development' plan for Central America currently in construction, which will bankrupt its governments with the exorbitant costs of constructing superhighways and linking electric grids and (foreign-owned) tourism super-projects, so as to ease the extraction of resources and exploitation of poor people by transnational corporations. See http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=3953 for more info.